


Silk Trap

by rosecake



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics)
Genre: Competence Kink, Costume Parties & Masquerades, F/F, Light Choking/Breathplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-21 11:43:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosecake/pseuds/rosecake
Summary: It's been less than a year since Aphra untangled herself from the Empire and the last thing she wants is to fall in with a syndicate that makes the Empire look tame by comparison. But she's never had much of a say in the direction of her life before, so why start now?





	Silk Trap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceQueenKing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/gifts).



Aphra had her own shuttle and that was a good start. A _better_ start would have been a proper starship, maybe a starhopper or a corvette or, if she was going to daydream, maybe even a small yacht. Instead, what she had was a rusted out old cargo shuttle that had outlived its usefulness sometime before she was born. She'd had to retrofit the thing with a hyperdrive herself. But it hadn't completely fallen apart on her yet, and it had come with a perfectly pleasant astromech droid that had shown zero murderous intent the whole time she'd had him, and she should probably be happy about both those things.

So she took in a deep breath and focused on feeling appropriately grateful. She was happy with what she had. She was not spending her every waking moment sullenly wishing she had either _Ark Angel_ back. She was turning over a new leaf, starting a new life as a free woman with no psychotic Sith Lords or droids or syndicate stooges pulling her strings, and-

"Damn it!" she screamed as a warning siren went off in the cockpit. "I hope whoever built this piece of junk of died in pain!"

Her astromech droid, R1-X9, ignored her cursing fit and calmly beeped out an explanation of their current engine problem.

"I know we're low on fuel," she said. The smell of smoke reached her and she turned around to see where it was coming from, only to find that it was coming from pretty much everywhere. "That shouldn't be causing fire!"

The astromech whistled in confusion, and Aphra sighed and wished that she'd tried a little harder to reprogram him to be less of a dimwit. Half his circuits had rusted straight through, though, and there was only so much she could do with his programming when his hardware was trashed.

She knew they were low on fuel, they'd been low on fuel since she left Maronso. She wasn't hauling anything close to the weight the shuttle was designed for, so she'd rigged up the engine to be more efficient, and- and, oh, the stress had cracked some couplings that she really needed in one piece if she wanted to survive.

"Uh, R1? Where's the closest inhabitable planet?"

The astromech projected a map of the nearest suitable planet across the wall, and Aphra sighed. Of course the nearest planet was a barely populated dump in the middle of syndicate territory. Fantastic. Story of her life.  
"Okay, scratch that, new request. Where's the closest inhabitable planet that doesn't completely suck?"

Something she couldn't see through all the smoke exploded, and R1-X9 started beeping in distress. "Fine, fine!" said Aphra. "Set a course!"

-

Aphra was a good thief, but thieving generally only worked as a career path when you were around people who had stuff worth stealing. She'd managed to scrounge together enough spare parts to put her shuttle's engine back together, but finding enough coaxium to get it off the worthless rock it was parked on was going to be a trick and a half. If anyone on this pathetic excuse for a planet had any fuel they'd have used it to leave already.

Every time she left the shuttle she saw locals eyeing it with envy and more than a little dark intent, and that was just sad. Nobody should be jealous of her shuttle. They should be making fun of her for it, not trying to figure out a way to steal it out from under her.

But Aphra would figure out a way to get off-planet somehow. On her first trip to the trading outpost she'd seen a cantina, realized it was called the _Bor Fantasia_ and walked right past it to the next cantina, only to circle back around once she'd realized it was a one-cantina kind of town. Fortunately, despite the name, there hadn't been too many tentacles involved in the decorating.

The bartender was excited to see her. "I can't remember the last time we had anybody new in here," he said. "Where'd you come from?"

She gave him the implausibly exciting life story of one Corina Tyr, an alias she'd made up in the in the long boring stretches of time alone in space when she hadn't had anything else to do besides fantasize about being someplace else.

"I'll be on my way as soon as I can find some coaxium for sale," said Aphra. She hoped giving the impression she intended to actually pay for it might make him more likely to point her in the right direction.

He laughed. "This isn't a space port, lady. You're going to be hard-pressed to find somebody with coaxium for sale."

Aphra sighed and let her head rest on the bar. "How often do you get ships in? Anybody. You must have people stop by." There had to be some reason for this place to exist. "Like I said, you're the first stranger we've had around here in ages, except for, well-" he said, and dropped his voice down to a whisper, "-the syndicate."

She swirled her drink around in her hand for a moment. "Which syndicate?" she asked. There were a number of them that currently wanted her dead.

"Crimson Dawn," he said, still whispering, and Aphra nearly choked on her whiskey. A refuse-heap like this, she'd expected a low-level Hutt at worst. But she'd go up against the Emperor himself if she had to.

"How often do they swing by?" she asked.

"Usually every couple of weeks."

Re-staging area for smuggling, probably. Take the stolen goods somewhere in the middle of nowhere, let them sit for a little while to make sure they weren't being tracked, and move them on to the final destination once the syndicate was sure everything was clean.

"A nice girl like you doesn't want to get involved with the likes of them, though," said the bartender.

Aphra knocked back the rest of her drink. Even an extremely not-nice girl like herself didn't want to get involved with Crimson Dawn, but she was going to run out of stuff to trade for alcohol long before anybody else showed up to bail her out of this mess, so Crimson Dawn it was.

-

"What are you doing here?" asked a very large alien, some species she wasn't familiar with. Ordinarily Aphra would tell him to sod off and mind his own business, but he had a very large gun to her head and that inspired a respectful and solicitous attitude in her.

"I'm here to offer my services, obviously," said Aphra. "I've been looking for a new job opportunity, and everybody always talks about how the Crimson Dawn is always growing!"

She'd set up a radar net and tracked the incoming Crimson Dawn ship when it had come down to this little hidden spot, a long way from what passed for civilization on this planet, and found that it was pretty heavily shielded. Hoping that the outpost had fuel storage for their transport ships, she'd made a hole in the shields and slipped in. As it turned out, they did have coaxium stored on-site! Along with way more guards than she had expected.

He looked at her suspiciously, which Aphra found a little insulting even though she was actually lying through her teeth. "I'm very good with tech and people always tell me I'm a great team player," she said. "I'm sure I have a lot to offer your esteemed organization!"

The unknown alien looked like he'd rather shoot her and be done with it, but his Rodian buddy looked more thoughtful. "I can't figure out how she got through the shields," he said. "I bet the boss would like to talk to her about that."  
Cutting a hole in the shields hadn't been difficult. If she'd hadn't been in such a rush to move on from this trash planet they never would have caught her in the first place.

"Absolutely," said Aphra, smiling. "Let's go see the boss."

-

The boss was human and he _sucked_. There was no way Aphra was sticking around to suck up to some mid-level mob flunky who got off on pushing other people around. Not when she'd already spent the last few years working for some of the nastiest people in the galaxy. A little independent theft, the occasional light fraud, maybe some grave robbing every now and then just to keep things interesting. That was the kind of life she wanted. Torture and murder weren't really Aphra's speed no matter what Triple-Zero said.

She could say one nice thing about the guy, though: he had very good taste in starships. He flew a Raider 00-class corvette, repainted in a Crimson Dawn influenced red-and-black color scheme instead of the usual Imperial gray, and Aphra wanted it so bad she could taste it. Her busted old shuttle was long forgotten, probably already picked apart by the locals where she'd left it, and she didn't care. She'd already started calling the corvette the _Ark Angel III_ in her head.

Unsurprisingly, the navigation panels had top-of-the-line encryption locks to go along with the rest of the starship's sexy modern build. But Aphra had already gone up agains the most cutting edge security tech the Tarkin Initiative had to offer, and she'd hacked her way through that without a problem. Unlocking the corvette only took her a few minutes.

Unfortunately for Aphra, the guards were faster.

-

There was a good chance Aphra was going to be executed sometime in the very near future, so her first thought on seeing the head of the Crimson Dawn probably shouldn't have been _she is a lot hotter than I expected._

__Qi'ra was the head of one of the largest and nastiest syndicates in the galaxy, and she didn't look like she was that much older than Aphra. She had big, dark eyes and a plump mouth, and her hair fell in loose waves down just past her shoulders. The syndicate's circle symbol was embroidered on one shoulder of her dress, a very simple and understated dress that still managed to look obscenely expensive._ _

__She didn't look dangerous, but then again there were a lot of dead people who had once thought the same thing about Aphra._ _

__Qi'ra smiled at her, soft and friendly, and Aphra wasn't dumb enough to fall for it but she still smiled back. Plenty of monsters had found her desperate attempts to survive endearing in the past, and she might luck out again this time._ _

__"You said your name was Corina Tyr, right?" asked Qi'ra._ _

__Her voice was sexy too, which seemed unfair. Human beings were supposed to have flaws. "That's me," said Aphra._ _

__"Really?" asked Qi'ra, and Aphra swallowed nervously. "Because I'm quite certain you're actually Chelli Lona Aphra."_ _

__She lifted up a pad that very clearly had Aphra's face on it along with her name and personal information. Well, that alias hadn't lasted long at all. Aphra thought about denying it and decided against it, because there wasn't much point in trying to lie. Her electro-tattoos alone were a dead giveaway. "You got me."_ _

__"Did you know you've got several open bounties out on your head? And from a truly impressive array of sources, too. The Alliance _and_ the Empire, a few of our competitors in the syndicates, and about a dozen posted by sources who wish to remain anonymous." _ _

__At some point Aphra was going to have to consider plastic surgery. There were way too many people looking for her. "I've always been very popular."_ _

__"You do seem to have a knack for making enemies. Speaking of which, you know you owed us quite a bit of money even before you tried to steal one of our starships, don't you?"_ _

__"What?" asked Aphra. She denied all of her debts as a matter of course, but this time her surprise was genuine. "I've never done any kind of business with the Crimson Dawn before."_ _

__Qi'ra had a smile like a shark. "We've been going through an expansion phase recently," she said. "You owed seventy-five thousand credits to the Men-Shei, and we took over the Men-Shei, so now you owe that money to us."_ _

__That was ancient history by now, but Aphra had a good memory for details. "I only owed them twenty."_ _

__"Not including interest," said Qi'ra. "Although that debt really is negligible considering what you owe us for the corvette."_ _

__Aphra didn't think it was fair that she owed the Crimson Dawn anything for a starship she hadn't actually managed to abscond with. Unfortunately, she didn't think her current audience was going to sympathize with her point of view. "Would you be willing to take an IOU?"_ _

__One of the guards growled at her, but Qi'ra looked more amused than annoyed with her, which boded well for Aphra's continued survival. "As it stands, you owe the syndicate substantially more than you're currently able to pay," she said. "So you've got a choice: you can either work it off or we can turn your head in for the highest bounty."_ _

__Slavery or death was one hell of a choice. She wasn't sure how she kept on ending up in this position, but she'd survived Darth Vader. Surely she could manage to survive one normal human woman long enough to make an escape._ _

__"What kind of work do you have in mind?"_ _

 

-

According to Qi'ra, the corvette Aphra had tried to steal had been a gift from an Imperial officer to the syndicate. And by 'gift' Aphra was pretty sure Qi'ra meant a bribe or some other kind of payoff, because nobody but the Emperor himself had brand new corvettes to pass around out of pure affection, but that didn't really matter. It had been handed over, not outright stolen.

"We have a few older ones," said Qi'ra, sliding her long, elegant fingers across the smooth finish of the dash, "but they don't really compare to the newer models. Sadly, stealing them has proven difficult."

"I bet," said Aphra. Stealing brand new starships out from under the Empire's nose was always going to be difficult even under the best of circumstances, but even if the syndicate could manage it, the encryption built into the navigation of the newer models meant they were basically very fancy bricks without somebody to hand over the correct access codes and keys.

"I'm hoping you'll be able to help us with that," said Qi'ra. She smiled, charmingly, like she and Aphra were friends. "After all, you were powering up the engines on ours when we caught up with you."

Aphra had been so close to freedom. She always managed to get so close before the universe slapped her back down. "Sure," she said. "Not a problem."

-

Aphra managed to catch two corvettes. The third slipped away from her, and she was worried that Qi'ra was going to be angry about it, but Qi'ra turned out to be the most even-handed murderous warlord she'd ever worked for.

"We can try again," said Qi'ra. "I've still got two more starships than I started out with, and I don't think we could have managed it without you."

"Wouldn't you say that makes us even?" asked Aphra, plastering her most endearing smile across her face. "You've got one to make up for the one I tried to steal, and another for the outstanding debt."

"What do you think, Aphra?" asked Qi'ra.

From Vader to Triple-Zero to Qi'ra. Aphra couldn't ever seem to slip the leash, it just kept changing hands.

At least her current master was a lot better looking than the previous couple she'd had. She had a low cut dress on today, and Aphra was having trouble stopping herself from staring. Qi'ra had a new dress on every time Aphra saw her, but everything she wore always conveyed that same sense of graceful elegance. It wasn't the kind of aesthetic Aphra expected from the head of one of the most violent criminal organizations in the galaxy. There should be more spiked leather, maybe some tattoos. A couple of unnecessarily large weapons at least. Aphra didn't think she'd ever seen Qi'ra armed, unless she was hiding something underneath her clothes.

"I think I'm not leaving any time soon," said Aphra. She didn't feel like pushing her luck at the moment.

"Being a member of the syndicate is like being in a family," said Qi'ra. "The obligation is life-long."

The joke was on her, because Aphra wasn't any better at family than anything else in her life. "Right," she said. "So what's the next plan?"

"Oh, I think it's about time for a break from hacking starships," said Qi'ra. "I hope you like music."

-

"You look lovely," said Qi'ra, and she must be teasing, because absolutely nothing could compare to Qi'ra in the strapless silk gown she was wearing. She already had her mask on, a delicate domino that was more of a decoration than anything else. It wasn't going to stop anyone from recognizing her.

Aphra was a lot more covered. Her mask was large enough to effectively conceal most of her face, and her dress had long sleeves and a high collar to cover her tattoos. She'd spent so long watching Qi'ra that she'd almost gone with something simple, something that would mimic that refined look Qi'ra had.

It had been ages since Aphra'd had the chance to really go all out, though, especially since her last attempt at a fancy dress party had ended with most of her guests getting slaughtered. Who knew when she'd get the chance to swan around in a gown again? So she'd given into her natural urges, and when she couldn't decide between the lace dress or the one dripping in crystal she'd decided to just have a protocol droid splice them together so she could wear both at once. She'd had the droid put together a really spectacular wig, too, but then Qi'ra had offered to help her put her hair up and she'd decided to pretend like the wig didn't exist.

She was currently feeling really good about that choice as Qi'ra raked her fingers through her hair, pulling half of it up to twist into a braid.

"I looked at the guest list earlier," said Aphra. "You know a lot of people coming to this thing want me dead, right?"

Qi'ra reached up to readjust the way Aphra's hair fell over her mask, sending a little tremor through Aphra's scalp. "Hence the masks," she said. "Don't worry. Some of the people there will have even more secrets to hide than you."

Secrets that Qi'ra would like to have, because much of her own personal Empire was built on information as much as anything else.

"Besides," said Qi'ra, "do you really want to stay behind?"

The sensible part of Aphra still wanted to beg off. But for better or worse, the sensible part of Aphra just wasn't that big.

"Nah, you're right," said Aphra. "What's the point of this dress if I miss the party?"

-

Aphra walked in on her own. As far as anyone else at the party was concerned, she wasn't affiliated with the Crimson Dawn in any way. Some Imperials had come in uniform, and others had come in with clothing marked with the symbols of their families or syndicates, but there were plenty of people just like Aphra, unaffiliated and anonymous in whatever outlandish outfit they'd put together for the evening.

Part of being a good con-artist was being personable, and Aphra could be fucking charming when she wanted to be. And that was what she was here for tonight.

It wasn't hard for her to stay close to an officer long enough for the scanner strapped to her thigh to copy the contents of the code cylinders tucked into his uniform, or for her to charm the Twi'lek in black long enough for her to lift her pad, insert her own transmitter chip and then slip it back into her robes. Most people were wearing masks, but they'd all brought more personal information with them than they'd intended anyway.

Aphra was busy and she liked it. Crimson Dawn had come up with a carefully constructed backstory for her to use as necessary, and she ignored it, because making things up on the fly was a lot more fun. It kept everything slick and superficial, just the way Aphra wanted it. She'd had enough heavy shit to last a lifetime. Tonight she just wanted to have a good time.

She was chatting up a stranger, waiting for a good opportunity to lift the blaster tucked into his jacket, when Qi'ra walked in. The Crimson Dawn symbol was worked into her jewelry and on the clothes of the people in her retinue. She wasn't hiding who she was. She wanted to be seen, to be known, for the people here to approach her with their offers. To pull desperate and greedy people into her web subtly enough that they wouldn't realize they were trapped until it was too late.

And she was definitely doing a good job of being seen, Aphra knew she wasn't the only one staring. She noticed the guy she'd been talking to was staring, too, and she relieved him of his blaster before slipping back into the crowd.

She moved onto the next mark - Qi'ra had given her a list of a few people she wanted specific things from, and in between Aphra was hitting up anyone who looked like a good target, letting her scanner read and copy whatever tech they'd brought with them, dropping a few trackers, occasionally stealing things that looked useful.

Things were going very well, and it was getting to her head.

"I like your mask," she told a drunk woman at the bar. The woman looked like she was there alone.

The woman giggled. She was very, very drunk. "I like yours too!" she said.

Aphra smiled. "Do you want to switch?"

"Oh, that's a fun idea," the lady said, her feathered mask already in her hand. Aphra made the switch quickly, facing the bar so that nobody else could see her. She left the drunk woman to enjoy her new mask and moved along the edge of the ballroom. Someone had left a bright emerald scarf unattended, and nobody paid her any mind when she casually picked it up. She wound it along the bodice of her dress, wrapping it over the crystals so that it covered them, and by the time she was done it looked like a whole new outfit.

Qi'ra was in the center of the room and the center of attention. Aphra, by contrast, had gone entirely unnoticed as she switched up her clothing.

The floor was packed with strangers. Nobody was paying attention to her, and she was currently wearing a different disguise than the one she'd come in with. There were a dozen different exits. She even had a blaster carefully strapped to her thigh next to the scanner. She could be on a starship and lightyears away before anyone realized she'd slipped the leash.

Qi'ra was dancing with someone Aphra barely registered, the light shinning against the black silk of her dress, a sharp contrast against the pale skin of her exposed shoulders and chest. And instead of moving for the exit, Aphra found herself moving to the center of the room.

Qi'ra's skin looked so soft, and the urge to touch her was like a compulsion pulling Aphra across the floor. She edged herself between Qi'ra and the man she'd been dancing with, and now it was her and Qi'ra dancing. Aphra knew she was holding a weird position, her hand too high on Qi'ra's back to really be a natural pose, but she needed it that high to touch bare skin.

Qi'ra leaned into the touch. "You wouldn't have made it very far," she said.

Aphra felt a tremor go through her, and she couldn't say if it was Qi'ra's voice so low and close to her ear or if it was the implied threat that did it.

"I wasn't going anywhere," said Aphra.

Qi'ra smiled, a strange combination of sweet and predatory, and Aphra knew she hadn't believed her.

-

"You did a wonderful job tonight," said Qi'ra, her eyes on her screen as the data from Aphra's scanner uploaded. They were alone in the office, and it was late, but Aphra was still wired up.

"Thank you," said Aphra. She might be a syndicate slave, but at least Qi'ra complemented her when she did things right. She'd been lucky to get a terse 'sufficient' out of Vader.

Qi'ra gestured for Aphra's purse and she dumped its contents out onto the desk, letting the data chips, trackers, and handful of code cylinders she'd palmed spill out across the surface.

"It's going to take ages to sift through all this," said Qi'ra. She was beaming, clearly pleased with the way the night had gone. She'd been making deals all night, and once she got a good look at all the information Aphra had stolen for her she'd be making a lot more.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" she asked.

Aphra shrugged. It stung a little to admit how much she'd enjoyed fucking over every person she'd talked to in that room after she'd spent so long trying to convince herself she was a better person these days. But at least she could console herself with the knowledge that they were all genuinely awful people. "I would have liked the chance to dance more," she said.

"It's not too late to fix that," said Qi'ra, reaching out for Aphra and pulling her close. There was music playing in the office, softer and slower than the music they'd had at the party, and she swayed gently in time with it. Aphra could feel the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, slow and steady, and for a moment she forgot that she also needed to be be breathing.

"You're not worried I'll try to knock you out and make a run for it?" asked Aphra.

Qi'ra laughed, and there was a malicious edge to it that raised the hairs on the back of Aphra's neck and got her wet at the same time. "Oh, Aphra," she said. "I'm not the one that needs to be afraid in this relationship."

She slid a hand under Aphra's skirt, dragging her fingers slowly up her thigh, and Aphra's mind went so blank at the touch that she forgot all about the blaster she was trying to hide until Qi'ra unstrapped it from her thigh.

"Um, I can explain that," said Aphra.

"Don't bother," said Qi'ra.

Before Aphra could say anything else Qi'ra leaned in and kissed her, tossing the blaster to the side so she could hold Aphra with both hands. She pulled Aphra in by her hips, holding her close as Aphra wrapped her arms around her neck, light-headed and desperate for something to hold onto. Aphra clung to her even as Qi'ra pushed her down to her knees, and then flat on her back, her body sinking into the plush carpet of the office as Qi'ra pressed down on her.

Aphra squirmed as Qi'ra pushed her dress up around her waist, tugging her underwear down and off over her shoes. She was already wet, riled up from the contact, and because she'd always been a little fucked up in the head she was wet from the threats, too.

She sighed and spread her legs as Qi'ra shifted, pressing her knee up against Aphra's cunt. Aphra moaned and pressed back, trying to tug at Qi'ra's dress, to strip her and pull her closer at the same time. She'd been by herself a long time, and she'd always been good at keeping herself entertained, but nothing she could do to herself ever really compared to another woman.

"On your side," said Qi'ra, pushing Aphra up and then settling up against her from behind so that they were spooning on the floor. She had to push Aphra's skirts up again as she reached down, running her fingertips over Aphra's slit.

"Qi'ra," said Aphra, whining a little as she thrust her hips up against Qi'ra's hand, desperate to be touched. Her dress felt too tight around her arms and chest, too warm, but she didn't want to stop for long enough to peel it off.

"You really did do a wonderful job tonight," said Qi'ra, finally sliding her fingers in to find Aphra's clit. Aphra shuddered, warmth rolling through her as Qi'ra stroked her.

Qi'ra wrapped her free hand around Aphra's throat and Aphra moaned, a little nervously, her legs shaking as Qi'ra pulled her closer. "So stop thinking about leaving," she said, and Aphra whimpered as Qi'ra's hand tightened around her throat, squeezing hard enough to leave her breathless. What little air she could manage was heady with Qi'ra's perfume, pressed as close as she was. Aphra bucked as the pleasure built up in her core but Qi'ra held her tight, one hand around her throat and the other buried in her cunt, and it was too much for Aphra to take all at once. She came almost embarrassingly quickly, her cunt pulsing around Qi'ra's fingers, her chest heaving against the tight bodice of her dress as Qi'ra loosened her grasp on her throat.

"Well you're very easy to please, aren't you," teased Qi'ra, her hand still tight around Aphra's neck, just barely letting her breathe. Aphra was still shaking, and for a minute or two she thought she'd never stop.  
But Qi'ra was wrong about her. She'd never been easy to please. "More," she finally managed, her voice hoarse.

They still had a lot of night left.

-

If she was a good person Aphra would have left the Crimson Dawn the first chance she got. She wasn't a good person, though, so it took her a lot longer to admit to herself that she wasn't really syndicate material than it should have. It didn't matter how often she had that dream about being Qi'ra's loyal lieutenant who spent most of her time on her knees underneath Qi'ra's desk. Aphra had a line, and her while her line might be somewhere past most crimes it still stopped somewhere before 'wholesale slaughter'.

If she were smarter she probably wouldn't have helped herself to a corvette on the way out. A few credits, maybe a couple of syndicate resources she could pawn to give herself a head start on her new path, maybe Qi'ra would have overlooked it. Stealing a starship was just begging Qi'ra to come after her.

But if Aphra was being honest with herself, she was looking forward to the chase.


End file.
